Archive for June, 2010

Naturally, before starting a project like this, it is necessary to check your local laws on keeping animals and building structures. Where we are, a structure of less than 100 square feet with no floor does not require a permit, and rabbits are not explicitly mentioned. Dogs, cats, goats, chickens, snakes, and all kinds of other things are, but not rabbits. Since we are keeping only four rabbits permanently, our setup should be no problem. We are endeavoring to make it blend in with the house as well as possible, and to make it look nice.

Most everything is done but the roof, now. Hopefully, we’ll get it roofed tomorrow. Nevermind the heat advisory…

Rabbitry basic structure. The space in the upper row is for a small extra cage I have that is currently occupied. In the future, it will be a segregation cage.

Cages are suspended from the corners at an angle. The chain is held by heavy wire staples.

Bracing and supports for poop chutes added, and upper chutes added. They drop five inches from back to front.

Bottom poop chutes installed, as well as gutters. The gutters drop three inches from ends to center. Doing them like this instead of from one end to the other allows for a greater incline. Dropping 3" over 12 feet is a gentler slope than dropping 3" over 6 feet. A light rinsing daily should keep them from blocking up. They will drain into a pan of peat moss.

Rabbitry moved into place, and screen surround started at left. This structure is being built on the back side of an outdoor storage room, so coming across the window isn't a problem. Light will still come in through the window.

Screen surround finished. The surround is built of the old window screens that used to be on the house. They need painting, but we'll get to that later. When it's COOLER! Oh, and that's a fig tree at right.

A view from the other side, through the crepe myrtle tree, with another very small fig tree at left. You might notice a square of lattice at the back of the surround. That is to protect the old screen from the aspidistra right beside it. Unfortunately, you can't see much of the aspidistra in this picture, since it is being blocked by the fig tree. It is under the ligustrum shrub.

As you can see, Hershey, the young red rabbit in the middle, is anxious to move into the new rabbitry, where he won't be squashed by his mother any longer.

We are building a rabbitry, and we are confined to early mornings and late evenings, because it has gotten so hot so quickly! 90 degrees with 90% humidity is just brutal, and time to go inside.

We have the rabbitry itself finished now, so tomorrow morning we will move it into place and begin enclosing it. The cages are all hung already, and the waste chutes are done, and the gutters for carrying it all to a pan are done.

We are incredibly blessed by some of the ways we’ve been able to save money on this project. My uncle had saved some chain for years, which we used to suspend the cages. He just had his hail-damaged roof and gutters replaced, so we had our gutters. And the security system on the house rendered the window screens unusable, and they’ve been sitting on support under the eave of the house ever since. We’ll be using those to screen in the entire rabbitry (most of them are 8′ tall), and we’ll roof the whole structure. One screen will become the door.

I am really looking forward to our rabbits having room to spread out, and a setup that will be much, much, MUCH easier to keep clean!

Welcome to 24 Carrot Rabbitry! My husband, children, and I raise meat rabbits. In an uncertain world, looking to become even more uncertain, it’s a step in the direction of self-sufficiency. With less than an acre of land, there may be a lot we cannot do, but there is a surprising amount that we can do.

Another step will be when we get a garden up and running.

Every family that is more self-sufficient than average is one less family that will need a lot of help in hard times. Then we can help others.

Look... People think that those who talk about emergency preparedness are paranoid loonies. What they don't realize is that you don't have to believe that society as a whole will break down in order to have a reason to prepare. You just have to believe that at some point, some life-disrupting event might occur. Like a hurricane. An earthquake. A tornado that takes out the local grocery store. A job loss. Standing in the blistering sun in a FEMA line is not the best you can do. Why not have extra put aside, stored away against hard times? Our grandparents and great-grandparents used to do this. They'd be the first to tell you that it isn't crazy talk.